i'm kasia madera in london. we start with breaking news. iran launches a ballistic missile attack on a us air base in iraq, iranian tv says it was in revenge for the american killing of general soleimani. the pentagon says the missiles were launched from iran there's no word yet on casualties. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore, the headlines: as the human toll rises in australia's bushfires, we hearfrom people trying to protect some of the country's precious wildlife from the disaster. we hear the story of how tensions between india and pakistan, have kept a family separated

in kashmirfor decades. hello and welcome to this special edition of newsday. it's 1:00am in london, 9:00am in singapore and 4:00am in iraq where iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on air bases housing us forces in the country. the pentagon says at least two sites were hit in erbil and al—asad west of baghdad. it says the missiles were launched from iran itself. iranian state tv says the attack was launched in revenge for the us assassination of the iranian general, qasem soleimani. the white house says president trump has been briefed and is monitoring events.

our news reporter gareth barlow is with me. of course this is a developing story which has been going on for about two and a half hours now, but i think it would be worth reminding ourselves from the beginning what has been happening. it was around two o'clock in the morning local time in iraq when there were reports of six missiles being fired at and striking the al—asad airbase. this is an iraqi airbase that also houses us troops and coalition troops. that figure of the number of missiles has increased, the pentagon now says at least a dozen ballistic missiles we re least a dozen ballistic missiles were fired against us military coalition forces and iraqi. we know that they have attacked two sites, one in erbil, in kurdistan region and the other in al—asad west of baghdad. state tv says that the

uranium revolutionary guard has taken responsibility for this, this is in response for america's targeted killing of qasem soleimani on friday. it had long been that iran would fight back stopping the iranian foreign minister says the killing was an act of war and they we re killing was an act of war and they were targeting legitimate targets. it seems as though this is the first stage and the iranians are warning allies of america, israel in particular, that if any of them get involved with any retaliation to these strikes, they will target them too. thank you very much. the images that we are seeing there, difficult to establish exactly which of the two bases they are, but those images just coming into the bbc news room there. i know that you are going to speak to peter? that's right, they do have peter herrick from los angeles. just to give a sense of the

reaction. —— peter bowes. we have had the white house continues to monitor this very closely, what more do we know? we know from the ministry of defence that it is right i'iow ministry of defence that it is right now carrying out an initial battle damage assessment. what they want to know is the extent of any damage and indeed whether there have been any casualties. we have no confirmation at all in terms of any of that detail yet, and that detail will be hugely significant, and the response of the united states to this attack, these attacks that have been carried out by iran. attacks that were expected on a schedule that really wasn't known, it may have been sooner or wasn't known, it may have been sooner or later but whether or not this is the major response to the american killing of that senior iranian general last week, we really don't know at this stage. all those

details and the information that has been gathered by the department of defence, and as you say, the president is being kept across all of those details. he is currently in the white house, he is working at his desk, we are told, and consulting with his senior advisers. we know some senior members of the cabinet, mike pompeo, the secretary of state have arrived at the white house and are all involved in the discussions that are happening right now. peter, of course when the straight first took place on qasem soleimani last week, president trump had said that iran, if they were to retaliate, he would react in a potentially disproportionate manner. of course, we are watching these attacks and of course we are getting all these developments as they break, but give us a sense of how you think the white house might react to this? i think the white

house will respond to this and it depends on exactly what has happened, and that is why the information has been gathered. if this is a major attack, if there is a considerable amount of loss of life, potentially, of american servicemen and women, that could have a huge bearing on the response of the white house. a response disproportionate as the president had promised, saying that if iran we re had promised, saying that if iran were to retaliate, he would retaliate again in that way, is something that has certainly concerned a lot of people here in the united states, and a lot of talk in congress and the democrats especially saying that they believe the action of the united states perhaps increased the likelihood of a war with perhaps increased the likelihood of a warwith iran, perhaps increased the likelihood of a war with iran, a prolonged war, whereas the president said that what he did last week and what the united states did was with quite the

opposite aim, to prevent a war. i think the key thing to look out for is if we are going to see these tit—for—tat responses in terms of retaliation, which country will decide to stop and say enough is enough? ifa decide to stop and say enough is enough? if a long—term war is to be avoided. thank you for monitoring that for us. this is a fast developing situation, we are monitoring at. gareth, the tension between the united states and iran has been escalating since the death of qasem soleimani. he was the head of qasem soleimani. he was the head of the revolutionary guard, we are now having it confirmed that the revolutionary guard was behind these attacks. that tension willjust tighten and escalate even more so. very difficult time. qasem soleimani was an ideological figurehead and very difficult time. qasem soleimani was an ideologicalfigurehead and he was an ideologicalfigurehead and he was the man on the ground for iran. he was the man that was in charge of plotting the course and direction of

their influence and policy in the middle east. he operated in syria and lebanon, he was influential in the fight against islamic state. he has been an iraq on numerous occasions. so they considered the killing of him as an act of war stopping the foreign minister of iran said they will respond against legitimate targets. we are hearing now that the revolutionary guard corps are saying if allies support the americans and any strikes back, that they will target them as well and they have been warning the americans to withdraw their troops from iraq if they want to prevent further attacks and any more rockets strikes, then they should withdraw and other members of the international community shouldn't get involved. we shouldn't be surprised by this response, maybe the speed of this response, just a few days after the killing of qasem soleimani is surprising, but the

iranians said they were always going to do something, and this is maybe an initial test of the water to see how america responds. we know that the iranians have targeted two military sites in iraq, both house and contain us troops and operations. one in northern iraq and her province, and the other just in northern iraq and her province, and the otherjust to the west of baghdad and al—asad. it will be interesting to see how this all goes on, how the americans respond and how the iranians respond. we know that members of the administration are gathering and the white house. mike pompeo, mikejessop have both gone there. we know that president trump has being briefed on this, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few minutes hours and possibly days. —— mark esper. on that point, we were

speaking about the reaction from the white house. we know that president is being briefed all the time, mike pompeo the us secretary of state. the defence secretary mark esper also arriving for briefings. mike pregent is a former american intelligence officer and adviser to general david petraeus in iraq. now he's a senior fellow at the hudson institute, he joins me from washington. it is going to be a long night, isn't it? the events, when it comes to the briefings that these two men will be giving to the president, a fly on the wall, what would you expect would be happening? there are several responses being discussed based on the damage assessment. what that really means is, are there any us casualties? because that changes everything. i would also argue that this attack in erbil on a base that

we have used in the past to go after isis targets is symbolic not only to the us but to our sunni allies and our kurdish allies, and the person who just replaced qasem our kurdish allies, and the person whojust replaced qasem soleimani from iran is known for putting down protests in iran, down to the age of io—year—olds, in order to send a message to the centres. to put down the descent and the process from iran to iraq to live in on. absolutely crucial to say at the moment when it comes to casualties we don't have any information on that. it is the middle of the time

and iraq so it is difficult to tell what kind of damage that is stopping but when it comes to the attacks themselves, they have happened just hours after the funeral of qasem soleimani. a surprised how quickly this retaliation has escalated? they hinted that no attack would happen until qasem soleimani was buried. there was a 72 hour morning process. we saw that with the procession across iraq and iran. but any attack had to come from iran to save face. whether or not they used accurate, guided missiles to ensure that they don't hit the side the americans we re don't hit the side the americans were on, because so far all the casualties were iraqi on these bases. if they intentionally used precision guided missiles do not have americans but to still send a

message, they are asking us for a face—saving gesture. we could do more, we are going to have military targets but we do want you not to respond. this is basically our response to what you did to qasem soleimani. so this could be a praying mantis scenario. would destroyed a significant part of the iranian navy and it stopped. customs of the money might have been that praying mantis. it might have been such a huge attack against the regime, because i would argue qasem soleimani was worth more to them than the iranian navy, and this is the response to that and then they stop. but if they have killed americans, that's a wildcard. but they also killed iraqis tonight, and what is baghdad's response to being killed by iranian missiles? any other country would have a response.

u nfortu nately, other country would have a response. unfortunately, baghdad's government appeared to be beholden to qasem soleimani's militias and that is what it looks like. it is important to stress, we don't know casualties as such, can't confirm on that, but we do know the pentagon has confirmed that this was ballistic missiles, do they have that level of precision that you are talking about? i have her christmas hills and ballistic missiles. if the new information as ballistic missiles, they are less accurate which means there is more of a probability to kill something accidentally. i think we will have to wait and see what the damage assessment as. if the hope was we are going to send ballistic missiles, they are not really accurate, then allow us to have a stake. a lot of messaging out

of tehran. give us something to save face and then we can stop. if there are no us casualties, this is actually a moment where the regime, even though they attacked in response to qasem soleimani's death, has backed off and it may be time to force them to the negotiating table ona number of force them to the negotiating table on a number of behaviours. but it is also a time that we really have to look at baghdad and iraq security forces and see whether or not, they we re forces and see whether or not, they were warned to stay away from american bases after qasem soleimani was buried, at least one kilometre away. i guess a good thing is they didn't, they stayed on those bases and if that was an order by the baghdad government to do so, then maybe we can look at that as a good gesture of them even though they have been a wavering ally. regardless, it has escalated tensions and i regardless, it has escalated tensions and i can regardless, it has escalated tensions and i can have regardless, it has escalated tensions and i can have that regardless, it has escalated tensions and i can have that you regardless, it has escalated tensions and i can have that you are a man and demand, thank you so much

for speaking to us. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: the story of the family in kashmir who remain divided following the 1971 war between india and pakistan. —— we will have the latest on the airstrikes in iraq and i will be getting the latest on the markets. the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief! after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil

as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. our top stories: iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on air bases housing us forces in iraq. the pentagon says the missiles were launched from iran itself let us take a look at how the

markets are reacting to this news because of course, the one thing that investors do hate is uncertainty and as you can see, the nicka uncertainty and as you can see, the nick a two to five —— the nike has fallen due to that news. —— nikkei. this is how australia is reacting, down about i%. i should add that oil prices are amongst the first things to react to that news. oil rose in reaction to that. a lot of concerns about oil supplies. it is where a large majority of oil comes from. it passes through those straights. oil prices spike. about 4% in reaction. a lot of those safe havens as well. gold prices hitting their highest since 2013. also the japanese yen

doing well, it was up and 2— three month highs a little bit earlier. more on asia business report a little later. we've been hearing incredible stories of escape this week as the australian bushfires forced people from their homes. but there's one evacuation which required more coordination than most. nikki and steve hunter from new south wales had 45 animals, a mix of pets and wildlife rescues, until they were forced to flee. those animals have been given another chance at life, here's my colleague, lucy hockings, in nowra. there is little sign of life in this charred bushland. normally it would be teeming with animals, from lizards to birds, koalas and kangaroos. but there are now estimates that half a billion animals here in new south wales alone have died in this bushfire disaster. some are surviving, though. we met nikki and steve,

one couple doing their best to make a small difference. nikki, tell me about these lovely baby bats. so these bats have really been struggling with climate change and the extreme heat temperatures we've been having. their mothers haven't been able to feed them enough so they've been abandoned. in the shoalhaven alone, we've had thousands and thousands of bats die. these guys are the lucky ones, they were saved when they were just 30 days old and we have been raising them ever since and they will go back out into the wild to hopefully reproduce and make more babies. and the worry for the bats is? with climate change, the bats aren't doing very well. alone in the last month, we've had thousands die. in the last year, they're just getting decimated. over the next few years, we'll probably see the decline of the bats and possibly the extinction of at least two species. these guys are threatened species

as it is so any loss is a huge loss to the populations. they‘ re very important for the australian bush. they're the most important long—range pollinators of the eucalypt forests and now we don't have many left from the fires. nikki, show me what you have in here, who we've got. ok, so in here, we have a baby mountain brushtail possum. he's had to be evacuated as well with us. he'll be released into the wild. these guys were in care for a very long time, we'll have him for close to a year. baby kangaroos and wombats are in care for about two years so it's a long term commitment. it's going to take decades and decades for the bush to regenerate properly. the impacts on the fire beyond what we see with the green tree leaves and all that, there are impacts to soil, impacts to the insects and all that sort of stuff. year after year you see less less frogs. less and less of those little species that can't handle big changes. so yeah, it's really scary.

and it's notjust native animals that have been affected. farmlands across the state have been decimated by these bushfires. farmers have been forced to bury their livestock in mass graves and that is devastating people, communities and local economies here in new south wales. millions of animals did. some 800 million. what is being done to help australia's wildlife? out on the field, the devastation is catastrophic. so many animals in desperate need of care. we have two

and a half thousand volunteers to provide the emergency medical requirements. many of your volunteers, people with the organisation, have been working non—stop. early in the crisis, we have devastating scenes of koalas being seen trying to escape the fires but what species in particular have been badly impacted?m fires but what species in particular have been badly impacted? it really hasn't picked anyone species. across the board, everybody has been affected. kangaroos, wallabies, a large range of bird species and also the reptiles. it is really non—discriminatory. the reptiles. it is really non-discriminatory. how do you go about rescuing them? what are you advising local residents to do? while we want to ensure as many animals are rescued as possible we need to make sure that human safety is important as well, as well for our volunteers so

is important as well, as well for our volunteers so we is important as well, as well for our volunteers so we wait until fire grounds are declared safe and actually send in teams of people to walk through the enormous fields of devastation to see what can be found. we are seeing a lot of images from all over the place of great rescues by the everyday person which then come into our care. in 1971, a border war between india and pakistan ended after a few days. a line of control marks where the region of kashmir is divided between india and pakistan. during the war, four pakistani villages in the gilgit—baltistan region of northern pakistan were taken over by the indian forces. 250 families in these villages got separated. farhat javed of bbc urdu and aamir peerzada of bbc hindi went to meet a separated family from both sides of the border. so close yet so far. a family

separated for nearly half a century with only a mountain range between them. this man, a retired soldier, lives in pakistan. his sister is on the other side of the border in india. she has not seen her brother since 1971. translation: i am living with the hope to meet my brother. my mother also died while waiting for him. 48 yea rs also died while waiting for him. 48 years ago, the indian army captured four villages in the pakistan region. it was during a war that endedin region. it was during a war that ended injust a region. it was during a war that ended in just a few days. more than 250 families were separated. this was one of them. a comrade told me

that my vinny —— village had become under control. my relatives were left —— my relatives left and i was the only one left in pakistan. every attempt to reunite with his wife and family failed. many of his relatives, including his mother, have died. some waiting for a visa to travel to pakistan. around 12 yea rs to travel to pakistan. around 12 years after the separation, he found his wife's dead body in the river. translation: my wife tried hard to come here to pakistan but she could not. finally, she jumped come here to pakistan but she could not. finally, shejumped into the river. or perhaps the river itself brought her here. her dead body

reached me and when i found it, i buried her here in pakistan. since 1971, only 23 people have been given visas to travel to the other side. the brutal legacy of the war is still keeping families apart but they don't give up hope. translation: due to this pain, have lost all of my strength but our hopes to reunite will never end. the border war ended after a few days but of course families felt the consequences for decades. i want to go back to the breaking news story we're monitoring here. iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on two air bases in iraq which housed us forces in them. the pentagon is saying that at least two sides were hit one in erbil and one

in al—asad. it is important to stress that at the moment we do not know of any casualties, it is the middle of the night and we don't know the severity of the damage. the united states have acknowledged these drugs have taken place and they are working to do a battle damage assessment to see how much damage assessment to see how much damage has been caused to the two sites. one west of baghdad, the al—asad airbase and the other near the kurdistan region near that region of erbil. the white —— the pentagon will be looking at what impact that has had and will then dictate any american response. it is interesting that these two sites have been targeted. the site in erbil near the airport was where the united states launched the attack

that killed abu —— abu bakr al—baghdadi. we had both donald trump visit this site and the vice president mike pence was there just a few months ago so these are very symbolic locations. obviously they housed american troops and coalition troops and iraqi forces. but they are very important to the united states in recent years and recent months. also interesting to note that the iranians who have taken responsibility for this have used listing missiles rather than using a proxy militia to do their work for them. they have taken direct responsibility for these attacks. they said they were going to strike back. they have considered the killing of the top general as an act of warand killing of the top general as an act of war and they said they would strike targets. the footage we are watching at the moment i believe was footage released by the islamic republic of iran roared casting and

they say that it shows the rockets that were launched at al—asad but of course at the moment it is the middle of the night. it is very difficult to confirm whether that is indeed that particular base. two bases that have been targeted. going back to the ballistic missiles. the pentagon are saying it is ballistic missiles and we have an expert saying they are less accurate than other forms of potential missiles which could potentially suggest that casualty figures could be quite high in terms of amongst the iraqis in that base as well which could be deeply worrying. that they haven't been specifically targeting the americans if they haven't got the type of missiles that are not pinpoint accurate. the scale and damage are critical. they are critical to the impact and the

message